TRIA Orthopaedic Center Your Cycling Blog

Erica Zaveta is returning to the Nature Valley Grand Prix for her 2nd year on the Kowalski’s Collegiate All-Star Team. Erica sits down with Jimmie Kaska, of Sports Radio 1400, and discusses her past experiences, challenges, and what she expects as she returns to the Grand Prix.

Sports radio 1400 interviews Emily Georgeson. Emily is a young upcoming racer from Wisconsin. She qualified to race in the Nature Valley Grand Prix through the Nature Valley Pro Chase amateur qualifier series. Emily talks about what it will be like to race in front of the home crowd. Also what inspired her to enter racing and her goals as a racer.

Congratulations! You just finished a long and challenging ride. But wait! Don’t abandon your nutrition needs just yet. The right mix of recovery foods will go a long way to helping you feel less sore, less stiff, and less tired in the hours and days that follow. A smart nutrition strategy includes a follow-up plan that will re-feed your glycogen stores and repair muscle tissue. Make sure you follow these five tips for prime recovery:

Timing Counts

The minutes immediately after you’re off the bike (when there is increased blood flow to your muscles) is when your body is most receptive to refueling.

Aim to eat within 15 to 30 minutes, and do not wait longer than 45 minutes.This is essential!

Then continue to eat at regular intervals for the next 24 hours to keep up replenishment.

Carbs Are Key, Protein Secondary

Carbs are the most important recovery nutrient. They stimulate the release of insulin, a hormone that helps build muscle and restock glycogen stores.

Aim for 1 to 1.5 grams of carb per kilogram of body weight in the first 45 minutes. Keep this up for about four hours after the event, or until you eat a larger meal.

For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, eat 70 to 100 grams of carbs per hour. One gram of carb has four calories, so that translates to about 300 to 400 calories of carbs as soon as possible after you get off the bike. You can break it up by having something 15 minutes after you stop, and again in another 15 to 30 minutes.

For the following 24 hours, your carb intake should be about six to 10 grams per kg of body weight (450-750 grams of carb for a 150 pound person).

Adding some protein to your carb can improve your recovery, but don’t overdo the protein (or fat) in the first couple hours, as that can slow the absorption of the carbs.

Smart Recovery Meal Ideas

Here are some meal/snack ideas that contain about 70 to 80 grams of carbs and eight to 15 grams of protein:

Large fruit smoothie made with milk or yogurt

Peanut butter sandwich and large carton of juice

Bagel and yogurt

16 oz 100% juice and two ounces of low-fat cheese

Chocolate milk and a one or two granola bars

¼ cup raisins, a large banana, and 16 oz. milk

Large baked potato and cottage cheese

Recovery drink with mostly carbs and nine to 10 grams of protein

Save higher protein intakes until at least two hours after the event. This could include chicken breast, fish, lean steak, high protein drink, etc.

Replace Fluids and Electrolytes

Replacing fluids lost by sweating is critical in order to prevent dehydration.

Your goal will be to drink on schedule during your ride and lose no more than 2 percent of your body weight (three pounds for a 150 pound person).

During training, practice weighing yourself before and after to get a sense of how much fluid you lose. For every pound lost, you need to drink 16 oz of fluid.

A pound of sweat contains about 90mg of potassium and 400 to 700mg of sodium.

As long as your recovery food or drink contains some salt or potassium, you don’t need anything special. One banana has 350 mg. Even foods like a cup of yogurt (520mg), large potato (800mg), cup of OJ (475mg), etc have plenty of potassium.

Sodium can also be found in most foods, from bagels and sandwiches to dairy and granola bars – just don’t choose low-sodium foods after the ride and you should be fine!

Don’t rely on sports drinks for potassium unless they specifically have it included. Check labels for sodium, as they vary.

With this recovery plan in place, you’ll be ready for another long ride in no time!

Resources

Position of the American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and athletic performance. J Am Diet Assoc. 2000;100(12):1543-1556.

Once you do have an appropriate gear setup on your bike, make sure you use them! One of things that makes me want to weep as a coach is when I see someone struggling up a hill, mashing a huge gear at a cadence of about 40, and I look at their gears and see that they have at least one, if not two or three, easier gear options to choose. Sometimes people will tell me “I want to save them in case I need them.” Sister or brother, I’m telling you: you need them.

Once your cadence starts to drop below about 70 rpms, your leg muscles will start to fatigue pretty rapidly, and it’s the kind of fatigue that is hard to recover from. So it’s in your interest to try to keep that cadence above 70 as much as we can (and 80 or 90 might even be better, depending on the grade of the hill). This has the additional benefit of taking some pressure off your knee joints, because there’s an awful lot of torque that occurs at the knee when we’re applying a lot of force at a low cadence. That means using all the gears you have, and practicing shifting in and out of different gears when you are working hard to increase your ability to do it smoothly and prevent the chain from jamming. Of course, if you don’t have any easier gears to use, then you just have to work with what you have. But if you find that you are always riding below 70 rpms on hills and you’re always out of gears, then by all means re-read the paragraphs above about cranksets and cassettes and think about making a change.

Pace Yourself

You’re always going to be breathing a little bit harder on the hills (or a lot harder), but that doesn’t mean you can’t try to control the effort somewhat. I will sometimes see people accelerate at the bottom of the hill, which might be a useful strategy if the hill is very short and you’ll just be able to pop over it quickly, but for most hills that take more than 30 seconds to climb, you’re better off trying to settle into a steady pace and maintain it for the duration of the climb. If you exert too much energy in the first half of the hill and blow up, you’ll suffer more over that last half than if you had held back a little bit early on.

Once again, use your gears appropriately. Practice shifting smoothly into the gears you need at the base of the hill. You will want to have an easy enough gear that you can climb with, but you also don’t want to shift into too easy of a gear too early and lose a bunch of momentum. Remember, you can always shift during a climb. It’s a little harder on a hill to make the shift with your front derailleur (as the jumps between gears are bigger), so you usually will want to make sure you are out of your biggest chainring in the front when you start the climb, but then you can use your gears in the back to fine-tune your shifting as you move up the hill. And plan ahead – thinking in advance about what gear you’d like to be in as you start the climb will help you avoid the mistake of shifting into too big of a gear and using too much energy early, or shifting into too easy of a gear and losing all momentum.

Be Happy

I used to race against a girl who was always smiling when we were climbing big hills. It would alternatively amaze and infuriate me – “Really, this is making you happy? COME ON, THIS HURTS A LOT.” But in retrospect, I think it was a great thing – either she was, indeed, just happy to be hammering up a hill, or it was a very effective psych-out strategy for her competition. Either way, she wins, figuratively.

But honestly, attitude does matter. As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, hills are hard for everyone, but the way you approach the climbing of that hill can make all the difference between having it be a good or a bad experience. Try putting some positive spin on the next hill you climb: “These hills are making me strong”. “The view from the top is going to be awesome.” “I bet the downhill will be fun!” Usually, this will make not only the hill but the whole ride a lot more enjoyable than if you are cursing (inside or outside) the whole way up the climb.

Increase Your Fitness

Well, duh. But it does need to be said. I started out this blog post by saying that the laws of physics tell us that it takes more energy to move a mass up a hill. The more fit we are, the more we can comfortably meet those energy demands. Apart from the things I’ve mentioned above, there isn’t anything magical about training to become faster on hills – the stronger we are, the less energy we’ll need to get up the hills (or the same amount of energy but we’ll go faster). And how to increase that fitness? Well, first and foremost, ride as much as you can (within reason). And get out and train on hills, because they’ll make you work hard, and that hard work will make you strong. I’ll talk in a later blog post about how to structure that training so that you have a good balance of hard work and rest and recovery.

So yeah, gravity is a law. But that doesn’t mean you can’t bend the rules a bit.

One of the most common questions I get from cyclists is “Why is riding up hills so hard for me?” My standard response, which I stole from my colleague and mentor Dean Golich is “Because gravity is a law.” What I mean by this is that by virtue of the laws of physics, hills are hard for everyone. Of course, we know that some people seem to scamper up hills pretty easily, while we are grinding away in our granny gear, breathing too hard while seemingly going nowhere fast. I guarantee you that those mountain goat riders who make the hill climbing look simple are actually working pretty hard too, but they likely have some tricks and tools up their sleeves that help make their work just a little more manageable. Adopting some of these yourself may help you manage those climbs just a little bit faster and more efficiently.

Lighten Your Load

It’s no secret that it takes less energy to move a smaller weight up a hill than a larger weight. So, to make hill climbing easier, losing weight off your body or your bike can definitely be useful. Even a pound or two can make a difference. Of course, losing bodyweight is not always the easiest thing in the world (and is too big of a topic to cover here), but if you can finagle a way to lose even a few pounds of bodyweight, you’ll almost certainly notice that on a hill.

The other option is to lose weight from your bike. If you’re riding an entry-level bike from years ago, it might be worthwhile to think about getting a new bike frame. Frame technology has come a long way over the years, so you may be able to find a much lighter bike than what you currently have within a fairly decent price range. Of course, you can spend many thousands of dollars on a tricked-out carbon fiber frame that you can hold up with one finger, but you don’t need to do that to get a light bike. If you don’t want to change out your frame, investing in lighter wheels can make a huge difference as well. It may be worth a trip into your local bike shop just to see what they have available and what your options are.

One of the easiest things you can do on a given bike ride to keep the weight down is to just mind what you are bringing with you. Of course, you need to have the things you need to get you through the ride (water and food, tools to fix a flat or other mechanical, and weather-appropriate clothing options), but try to plan ahead so that you have everything you need and nothing more. If you are loading up a backpack or saddle bag with a bunch of extra stuff that you probably don’t need, know that there will be a price to pay for those things on the hills.

Gears Matter

If you know that much of your riding will be done in the hills, or you have an important cycling event you want to complete that is very hilly, you’ll want to make sure that you have the appropriate gearing for that task. There is a “standard” crankset, which consists of a 53-tooth and 39-tooth chainring for your front gears (the ones by your pedals). However, for most people, having either a compact crankset or a triple crankset is enormously helpful in improving one’s ability to get up hills in the most efficient manner. A compact crankset usually consists of a 50-tooth and 34-tooth chainring. These smaller gears give you the ability to keep a little bit higher cadence on the hills and are easier to pedal with on hills. A triple crankset consists of 3 different gear options in the front, with something like a 53-tooth, a 39-tooth, and a 30-tooth chainring. This will give you a lot of gear options for climbing different size hills.

Another option for you is to make sure you have some larger cogs on your rear cassette (that’s the gear system on your rear wheel). For example, if your largest cog is a 23-tooth, you could get a cassette with a 27- or 29-tooth cog, which translates into easier gear options.

There’s this strange thing that I sometimes hear from riders, that it’s somehow “uncool” to ride anything less than a standard crankset. To me, that’s just silly. What seems more uncool is to ride gears that are inappropriate for a particular course or person – I mean, if there are tools available to us to help us ride more comfortably and efficiently (which then usually also transfers into “faster”), why wouldn’t we use them? Options are cool.

To be continued as Fiona covers efficient use of gearing, pacing and the benefits of a fit attitude…

There is nothing more difficult than running out of energy halfway through a long ride, or even worse, cramping up due to dehydration! As the Menomonie Gran Fondo and Spectator Rides approach, your nutrition becomes the critical component for a successful and enjoyable day. A few days prior to the ride you should start hydrating. Drink water frequently, cut back or eliminate caffeine and alcohol, and add carbohydrates to your diet. Practice proper nutrition habits for each training ride leading up to the event to be sure you are eating and hydrating properly.

On the day of the Gran Fondo, eat a light breakfast of high-carbohydrate foods and drink lots of water. During the ride drink before you’re thirsty. The rule of thumb should be one water bottle (20 ounces) per hour on the bike especially if it is warm weather. Water or a sports drink should be your first choice. Carry two bottles and alternate your consumption throughout the ride. Eat easily digestible, carbohydrate rich-food such as energy bars, bagels, fruit or granola bars. Don’t try something new on the ride; eat things you know agree with you. Remember, practice makes perfect so do several test rides before the Gran Fondo.

Attitude

In a large group ride, it’s only natural to feel a sense of competitiveness in our veins. Don’t let the adrenaline take over your ride! Ease into the ride pace. The Menomonie Gran Fondo isn’t a race and if it’s your first long ride, the goal is to finish comfortably and enjoy the experience. Stay positive and attentive to others around you. Safety should be at the front of your mind during the day. Here are some more tips for an enjoyable ride:

• Change your position on the bike frequently. Move your hand position, get off the saddle, stretch your arms, shoulders, neck, and calves, and arch your back. Avoid staying in one position too long.

• Take short rest breaks off the bike. The Menomonie Gran Fondo includes both water and food stops. Take advantage of this time to get off the bike, refill your water bottles, stretch, and use the restroom. Keep these stops to 10 minutes or less or you may risk getting stiff from lactate build up in your muscles.

• Find a companion or two who ride at a pace similar to yours. The ride will go faster and feel easier with a friend or two who you can chat with and provide mutual support. Also, skilled riders can take advantage of drafting and save some energy in the wind. On windy days, take turns leading into the wind with your fellow riders to conserve energy.

Attitude is everything. If you have prepared yourself well, you can sit back and enjoy the beautiful scenery around Menomonie and Dunn County (and maybe plan your next big ride). In my next entry, I’ll cover Gran Fondo day-of-ride preparation.

A milestone in the life of any avid cyclist is riding in a major event like the Nature Valley Bicycle Festival’s Gran Fondo rides in Menomonie, WI, June 16. While riding 65 or 85 miles in a day may sound extreme to a non-cyclist, you can do it too! Almost any novice cyclist can complete a Gran Fondo ride if they follow a consistent training routine. The key is to start your program early to give your body a chance to respond to the training plan and not wait until the last minute to train. If you are not up to the challenge of a “Big Ride” this year, give yourself a chance to succeed on your own terms by participating in the shorter distance Menomonie Spectator Rides, which are 32 or 15 miles in length!

There are 4 key success factors to have a fun and rewarding Gran Fondo experience:

• The right equipment
• The right training
• The right food
• The right attitude

Equipment
The right equipment means comfort and functionality. Your bike should fit you well and you should be familiar with it. If you aren’t sure about fit, have your local bike professional provide a fit-assessment. A visit to the local bike shop will also identify any mechanical issues with your bike. Don’t plan to ride a new or a borrowed bike on your first Gran Fondo ride. Consider having a tune-up before the ride, and carry a spare tube and patch kit, tools, a pump and knowledge of how to use them. Other essential equipment includes:

• A helmet that fits appropriately (must be worn to be effective)
• Water bottles and cages
• Energy drink and snacks for the ride
• Cycling clothing, including shoes, shorts, gloves and rain gear
• Sunglasses and sunscreen

Training
The core of your training should be endurance training. If you start your training at least 12 weeks before the ride, you will have ample time to prepare for the Gran Fondo. If you already ride more than five hours a week, you will need far less time to prepare. While most of your rides will be at about 65% of your maximum heart rate (MHR), add two days of interval training, where you push hard for several minutes – up to 85% MHR. Hills are a great way to add interval training to your ride. And don’t forget to allow one day per week for recovery. If you can only ride four to five days a week, don’t do your rest days consecutively. A sample training schedule may look like this:

More Training Tips
• Maintain a cadence of 80 to 100 revolutions per minute
• Increase your mileage as you get closer to the Gran Fondo, no more than 10% at a time.
• Ride with friends, family or your local club to increase your level of comfort riding in larger group.
• Plan a 50- or 60-mile ride at least two weeks before the century to gauge your fitness
• Taper your mileage a week before the century. During that week you may even reduce your riding to one or two days of an easy five to 10-mile spin. Also, try to get plenty of sleep.

In the next blog, I’ll cover Nutrition and Attitude as you approach the day of the Gran Fondo rides. So, stay tuned!

What a difference a day makes for Ken Hanson at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Yesterday, the sprinter from Team Type 1 was disappointed in his second place finish behind repeat winner Hilton Clarke (UnitedHealthcare p/b Maxxis). Today, Hanson waited patiently until the finale of the 95-mile Menomonie Road Race to launch his sprint and take the win.

“Hilton was unbeatable yesterday. I knew the speed was there in my legs, I felt good after the race, it was a little bit of a confidence boost and I think it left me hungry to come today that if it was going to be a sprint to know that I know I have good legs and the fitness is there and I just need to get a clean shot at the line and I felt confident with that,” said Hanson.

Making it even sweeter for Team Type 1 was Alexey Shmidt finishing second in a photo finish ahead of Rory Sutherland (United Healthcare p/b Maxxis).

With his six-second time bonus, Sutherland now sits at only three seconds down from leader Scott Zwizanski (Kelly Benefit Strategies) with one stage to go, the very tough Stillwater Criterium. Last year, Sutherland made his move on the leg-busting Chilkoot Hill to grab those extra seconds to come from second place and win the overall for his second time. Can he three-peat tomorrow?

“I think whatever happens tomorrow happens, if we can pick an extra few seconds that’s great, if not and Scott wins, he’s a fantastic guy and he’s worked super hard. I definitely applaud their effort, it was fantastic and they deserve it but it’s still a bike race. What would Stillwater be without a small gap and exciting for everybody?” asked Sutherland.

“I’m nervous. I always get nervous. Nervous but confident in my team, I’ve got great teammates who are going to lay it all on the line for me and I’m going to lay it all on the line to try to hold on to the jersey,” said Zwizanski.

It will all come down to gaps at the finish line on the final stage. “No time bonus tomorrow, it’s just a clean old race which is good,” commented Zwizanski.

But before the final sprint to the line, attacks flew at the start in Menomonie, the first time ever that the Nature Valley Grand Prix left Minnesota. Riders from BISSELL, Fly V Australia, Jelly Belly p/b Kenda, Kenda p/b Geargrinder and more took flyers off the front of the field, either solo or in groups. Everybody wanted to be in the break so for the next 40 miles, it was non-stop attacking at the front with Kelly Benefit Strategies controlling and making sure nothing threatening went up the road.

During this non-stop activity period, Brad Huff (Jelly Belly p/b Kenda) took the first two KOH putting him in the lead for that competition.

Content with the combination, the peloton sat up and the gap grew. While many tried, only one rider, Phil Gaimon (Kenda p/b Geargrinder), managed to bridge up while Bowman dropped back to the field to help out the chase. With almost every rider in the break rotating through, the gap went up to two minutes and twenty-five seconds with 40 miles to go making Frey the virtual leader on the road.

Meanwhile, Zwizanski’s team led the chase and started to bring down the gap, with 30 miles to go, it was down to two minutes. Entering the first of four finishing circuits, with 12 miles to go, only 15 seconds separated the two groups. And then it was a free for all.

“Some guys started attacking before we actually caught the break, We got swarmed before we caught the break,” explained Zwizanski. “Vennell attacked, Amaran attacked, that guy attacks harder than anybody I’ve ever known its so hard. I was all over Amaran, Rory was all over me, Rory was all over Veilleux and Zach. Coming in it was crazy, this shuffling and attacking.”

Attacks continued and with three laps to go, the United Healthcare train came to the front, using all their riders to try and get those seconds for Sutherland.

With two laps to go, a counter-attack went with Zach Bell (Kelly Benefit Strategies), Nathan Brown (Trek-Livestrong), Gabe Verala (Nature Valley Pro Ride) and Gaimon. With the field closing down on them, Bell gave a last gasp but it was all back together on the final lap.

Team Type 1 was biding its time. Shawn Milne and Davide Frattini took over the pace making on the backstretch and upped the pace. Karl Menzies with Sutherland on his wheel swarmed the trio and made their way to the front.

“We just stayed really close, right behind them and waited until the right moment, they had to make their move before the last corner to try to lead out Rory. They did a great job but luckily myself and my teammate were in the right position to come around for the finish,” explained Hanson who came around the UnitedHealthcare duo to take the win.

“I can only do so much against the sprinters but at the end of 150K with a lot of guys that have been doing crits, I can sprint much better than I could yesterday. Again we saw Kelly did a great job riding at the front all day. And again us, our guys got on the front with three laps to go, they kept going, that’s fantastic. Hilton gave up all his chance to win today, and so did Jake and so did Karl for me and that shows the team spirit and definitely shows what we have together,” said Sutherland.

The Kelly Benefit Strategies team worked hard all day and could not keep Sutherland out of the top three.

“It was hard for our guys today. We didn’t get the crosswinds that could have really broken up the race, but there was enough wind to make it hard the whole way. Our guys used everything they had and they did a great job.” said Zwizanski who crossed the line in 13th place with the same time and gets to defend the jersey for one more day.

Huff, known as a sprinter, took points in all the King of the Hill (KOH) competitions and put himself in the polka dot jersey.

“We tried to make sure that we were in the 1-2 each time, luckily it worked out that way,” said Huff about competing with Sulzberger for points. “Early on, it was just cat and mouse earlier in the race, I got lucky that I followed the right moves and was able to go for the sprint on the hill, it was a long day.” He added about defending the jersey, “Tomorrow is a sufferfest, I’m just hoping that I can ride well.”

The race concludes tomorrow with the Stillwater Criterium, 20 laps of torture where the course features the trek up Chilkoot Hill, with an average grade of 18%, every lap. It’s going to be war out there between Kelly Benefit Strategies and UnitedHealthcare, between Scott Zwizanski and Rory Sutherland.

The two-woman breakaway of Erinne Willock (Webcor Builders) and Linda Melanie Villumsen (HTC-Columbia) held off an aggressive chase group to take first and second, respectively, at Nature Valley Grand Prix’s first-ever Menomonie Road Race in Menomonie, Wisc. The two had enough of a gap off the chase group to put Villumsen first in general classification. Rounding out the podium was Team TIBCO’s Brooke Miller, who won the field sprint for third.

Erinne Willock, Webcor Builers, wins stage 5 of the Menomonie Road Race, part of the Nature Valley Grand Prix, after building a more than 40 second gap over the peloton.

With racers less tired than they might otherwise have been due to the cancellation of the Thursday’s Cannon Falls Road Race, the stage was set to be an aggressive battle.

Riders lined up eight abroad during the opening 3.3 miles of neutral start and saw riders from HTC-Columbia, Team TIBCO, and Colavita-Baci heading the charge. Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12 and Team Vera Bradley Foundation flanked the sides, ready to pounce.

But the pack stayed close together to the first QOM competition, where Team Vera Bradley Foundation rider Anne Samplonius made the first breakaway escape, gaining up to 40 seconds on the pack in a solo effort. She was joined by Rebecca Much (Team TIBCO), but both were eventually caught while climbing the second QOM.

By this time the field had been eying each other, testing each other’s strategies, and teams began to launch aggressive attacks.

“We wanted to have a really aggressive race and put riders up there that would put Peanut Butter in a position where they’d have to defend,” said Brooke Miller (Team TIBCO). “I think everyone in the peloton had that same strategy. It really was an aggressive race – the whole peloton was animated.”

“We wanted to wait and see how everybody else was going to deal with the course,” said René Wenzel, team director of HTC-Columbia. “It was going to be a very hard course if everyone was aggressive – and we wanted it to be aggressive – but we only have five riders on our team so we needed to wait a little bit before we went into action.”

Ruth Corset (Team TIBCO) attacked the peloton at the third QOM on Oak Ridge Hill.

“Ruth just flies up hills, and I won’t lie, that hurt!” laughed teammate Miller. “That’s when the first decisive separation of the day happened.”

“There were some attacks going across the time and some cross wind there,” said Willock. “I attacked at the top and Linda bridged across and we worked together from then on.”

“I saw her [Erinne] go, and I thought, ‘Here’s my chance’,” said Villumsen. “It was hard to communicate with each other because we didn’t have the radios so we had to keep track of where everybody is and who’s going up the road. Today for us was perfect.”

”It’s a good course,“ said Willock. ”With the rolling hills and wind, it’s out-of-sight-out-of-mind, so it’s good for a breakaway.“

The gap opened up quickly and by approximately 10 miles was up to 1’ 45”. As the duo entered the technical circuit race for five laps and 11.6 miles of racing, the gap was down to 40 seconds from the chase.

Villumsen noted, ”They came closer and closer and we saw the bunch around some of the corners. We said, ‘OK, we have to give it everything, everything to the finish’, so it was all-out.“

“We pretty much didn’t know we would make it to the line [away] until about one lap to go,” said Willock. “I sprinted but Linda pretty much gave me the stage. She was moving into yellow and it was a good stage win for us.”

A pack-sprint of the chase group followed.

“It was kind of crazy, we really didn’t expect a bunch sprint today,” said Miller. “We had a lot of different scenarios. For how technical the course was, it was hard to say ‘This is how we want to do the lead out’ so we improvised. I was just sitting on Meredith [Miller] and she did a great job of moving me around the corner. Emma Mackie [Team TIBCO] attacked, Meredith took off and took me to the last corner and I just took it from there.”

Villumsen enters the final stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix, the Stillwater Criterium with its infamous Chilkoot Hill that boasts an average grade of 18%, with an 11 second lead over Evans. Corset and Willock move into third and fourth places in the general classification respectively, both at 34 seconds back.

Villumsen currently leads the Fruit By The Foot Best Young Rider Jersey, and Mara Abbott (Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12) is the new Jelly Beans Sport Beans Queen of the Hills leader. Willock will wear the Freewheel Bike Most Aggressive Jersey into tomorrow’s stage. Evans still leads the Wheaties Sprinter competition, and Chloe Forsman (Specialized D4W/Bicycle Haus) remains in the Nature Valley Best Amateur Rider Jersey.